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A heeled bullet is a specific design of
bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and co ...
where the internal
diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid f ...
of the
barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...
is often, but not always, the same diameter as the
cartridge Cartridge may refer to: Objects * Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition * ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device * Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators Other uses * Cartridge (surname), a ...
case, and the bullet has a step at the rear to allow it to fit inside the case. Heeled bullets mostly disappeared with the advent of
smokeless powder Finnish smokeless powderSmokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to gunpowder ("black powder"). The combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared t ...
cartridges, though older rimfire designs, such as the
.22 caliber .22 caliber, or 5.6 mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm). Cartridges in this caliber include the very widely used .22 Long Rifle and .223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO. .22 inch is also a popular ...
rimfire cartridges, still use heeled bullets, and many cartridges that date back to the
black powder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). T ...
era still reflect their heeled bullet origins in their
caliber In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore matc ...
designations.


Reasons for change

The heeled bullet design has many advantages, mainly when coupled with the straight or slightly tapered walled cases it appeared in. For pistols, converting a
cap and ball The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise ...
revolver to use cartridges was as simple as cutting off part of the rear of the cylinder, replacing it with a frame-mounted ring, and changing the hammer. It also made new revolvers easier and cheaper to manufacture as the chambers could simply be drilled straight through the cylinder, whereas bullets narrower than the case required two different diameters to be drilled, and careful control of the depth for the larger diameter bit. Finally, it made it very easy to chamber cartridges of the same diameter but differing lengths in the same
firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
, which is still commonly seen today in .22 caliber rimfire firearms, which are marked ".22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle". While this can be done with straight-walled cases not using heeled bullets, such as
.38 Special The .38 Special, also commonly known as .38 S&W Special (not to be confused with .38 S&W), .38 Smith & Wesson Special, .38 Spl, .38 Spc, (pronounced "thirty-eight special"), or 9x29mmR is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & ...
in
.357 Magnum The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR as it is known in unofficial metric designation, is a smokeless powder cartridge with a bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. ...
firearms, it tends to create lead and powder residue buildup at the front of the chamber, which can cause reliability problems if not cleaned out before switching back to the longer case. One of the primary reasons for the change was the issue of lubrication.
Lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...
bullets, especially soft, low alloy lead used in low pressure cartridges, need to be lubricated to prevent lead buildup in the bore. This lubricant can be applied either to the exposed portion of the heeled bullet, called ''outside lubricated'', or on the portion inside the case, called ''inside lubricated''. Outside lubrication requires a hard, dry lubricant, as anything soft or sticky will rub off or pick up dirt that comes in contact. Inside lubrication, on the other hand, can use sticky wax or grease, but then needs some means for the lubricant to reach the wall of the bore, since the diameter of the heel is smaller than the bore. While there were some methods patented to allow inside lubrication of heeled bullets (such as a piston at the base, which forces lubricant out of ports in the exposed sides of the bullet upon firing), they never became popular, due to the complexity and expense involved. Non-heeled bullets, however, can easily be lubricated on the portion inside the case using a ''grease groove'' packed with lubricant. This prevents the lubricant, usually a grease or wax, from picking up dirt and grit which can damage the bore.


Surviving examples

Arguably, heeled bullets are still very common because, while very few calibers use them, the
.22 Long Rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smo ...
does, and it is the most commonly used cartridge in the world. The other cartridges in the .22 Long Rifle family, the
.22 Short .22 Short is a variety of .22 caliber (5.6 mm) rimfire ammunition. Developed in 1857 for the first Smith & Wesson revolver, the .22 rimfire was the first American metallic cartridge. The original loading was a bullet and of black powd ...
,
.22 Long 22 Long is a variety of 22 caliber (5.6 mm) rimfire ammunition. The 22 Long is the second-oldest of the surviving rimfire cartridges, dating back to 1871, when it was loaded with a 29 grain (1.9 g) bullet and 5 grains (0.32 g) of black po ...
,
.22 CB The .22 CB cap (conical breech cap) is a more powerful version of the .22 BB cap (aka: 6mm Flobert) rimfire metallic cartridge, which was invented by Louis-Nicolas Flobert in 1845. The .22 BB cap and .22 CB cap are interchangeable and are rela ...
, and .22 BB, all use heeled bullets. A few other heeled-bullet cartridges are available, but they all originated in the mid to late 19th century. The recent gains in popularity of
Cowboy Action Shooting Cowboy action shooting (CAS, also known as western action shooting, single action shooting, Cowboy 3 Gun, Western 3-gun) is a competitive shooting sport that originated in Southern California in the early 1980s, at the Coto de Caza Shooting R ...
has increased interest in these old cartridges, and there are even a few new replica firearms being made to chamber them.


Cartridges evolved from heeled bullet designs

To convert a heeled-bullet cartridge to a non-heeled design, it was necessary to either enlarge the case diameter, or shrink the bullet and bore diameter. Examples of both choices can be found, but some of the more evident and confusing examples are cases where the bullet diameter was reduced. Many shooters wonder why a .38 caliber firearm actually shoots bullets of diameter, and a .44 caliber firearm shoots bullets of diameter. In both of these cases, the name of the caliber derives from older heeled-bullet designs, and the name was kept even when the bullet was shrunk to fit inside the case. The .38 S&W cartridge, for example, dates from 1877 and has a nominal outside case diameter of .380 inches, while the inside of the case is .360 inches. Older .38 caliber cartridges, like the
.38 Short Colt The .38 Short Colt, also known as .38 SC, was a heeled bullet cartridge intended for metallic cartridge conversions of the cap and ball Colt 1851 Navy Revolver from the American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 � ...
, did use a heeled bullet, so rather than create a new ".35" or ".36 caliber", Smith & Wesson kept the designation ".38" even though it no longer accurately reflected the groove diameter. The later
.38 Special The .38 Special, also commonly known as .38 S&W Special (not to be confused with .38 S&W), .38 Smith & Wesson Special, .38 Spl, .38 Spc, (pronounced "thirty-eight special"), or 9x29mmR is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & ...
continued the trend, and even automatic pistol cartridges such as the
.38 Super The .38 Super, also known as .38 Super +P, .38 Super Auto, .38 Super Automatic, .38 Super Automatic +P, or 9×23mmSR, is a pistol cartridge that fires a bullet. It was introduced in the late 1920s as a higher pressure loading of the .38 ACP, a ...
,
.38 ACP The .38 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol), also known as the .38 Auto or 9x23mmSR, is a semi-rimmed pistol cartridge that was introduced at the turn of the 20th century for the John Browning-designed Colt M1900. It was first used in Colt's Model ...
, and
.380 ACP The .380 ACP (9×17mm) ( Automatic Colt Pistol) is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge developed by firearms designer John Moses Browning. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case.Wilson, R. K. ''Textbook of Automatic Pisto ...
retained the .38 caliber designation, even though they have calibers between .355 to .357 inches. This continued until 1935 with the introduction of the
.357 Magnum The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR as it is known in unofficial metric designation, is a smokeless powder cartridge with a bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. ...
cartridge. However, the .44 Magnum cartridge, introduced in 1955, retained the designation of its parent
.44 Special The .44 Smith & Wesson Special, also commonly known as .44 S&W Special, .44 Special, .44 Spl, .44 Spc, (pronounced "forty-four special"), or 10.9x29mmR is a smokeless powder center fire metallic revolver cartridge developed by Smith & Wesson in 1 ...
cartridge, even though it fired a .429 inch bullet. The legacy of heeled bullets is the cause of confusion among many shooting enthusiasts over the actual physical diameters of the bullets they fire in their guns.


References

{{Reflist Ammunition